January25

January 22, 2002

Happy birthday to Mom and Happy Due Date to my friend April! We thought for sure that nothing at all would happen today, but she woke up this morning with some contractions and other signs, so maybe she'll deliver on her due date after all! Or at least maybe not have to go through an induction this weekend. She's been saying for the last couple days that she thinks we're going to end up at St. Ann's at the same time. I hope not, she's due exactly a month and a day before me, so she'd BETTER deliver first!! People around the office are now taking bets as to how long I'm going to last. I'm just happy that tomorrow it will have been two weeks since I went into labor; two weeks is a very important amount of time these days! I'm now getting into the safe zone of when we know the baby will probably be just fine, so I'm starting to feel much more comfortable with the idea of going into labor at any time. According to most things I read, she's around 6 pounds by now so she should be okay. Hopefully I'll find out more at my doctor's appointment this week. Right now it's scheduled for Friday morning but I really wonder if I'm going to make it that long. I just don't think I want to wait that long to get another progress report. Yesterday morning I even wondered if I'd end up at the hospital again by the end of the day, because I had been having so many contractions. Sunday night they got pretty bad, but that was probably because I was late taking my pill by a half hour. After I took the pill and waited a little while (with my feet up, yes Mom I AM sitting almost constantly!!) the contractions subsided. Yesterday I really began to wonder though. Today I seem to have stabilized pretty well. I've only had a few contractions here and there.

Sunday morning was interesting. I woke up and noticed two big changes to my body: first, my waist came back! The baby has now dropped so low that I actually have a waist again. On one hand it's kind of nice that I have some shape back, but now it hurts more than ever whenever I walk around. Whenever I walk anywhere for more than about 15 feet it feels like she's about to fall out and the pressing against my pubic bone gets so bad, especially when I wake up in the middle of the night and have to somehow try to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. I'd really be surprised at this point if she hasn't really dropped down into my pelvis because the change in my waist was really dramatic. Plus, the second big and VERY surprising change was my belly button! It had popped out really early, like around 4 months if I remember right, and it just became more and more of an outtie every single week. I was getting really used to seeing it that way, very much a solid outtie. Sunday morning I was getting ready to jump in the shower ("jump" being figurative) and I noticed a difference on my belly. My belly button was no longer sticking out! It had popped back in overnight! This was one end of pregnancy thing I had never heard of before. By the middle of the day it had come back out a little again, but it's really soft around that area now and I can push it back in really easily, whereas before there was no way I could do that. That part of my belly is now flat too, instead of sticking out very round, it's almost concave, but just right at that spot. As you go lower down it's DEFINITELY still extremely round. When I look down now, from my vantage point I can't even tell I have underwear on. (I wear the kind that stays around my hips, not the big ugly typical maternity underwear.)

Last night I got home from work and Mom and Grandma Hedrick opened the door to greet me. They had been out shopping all day, and had kicked into high-gear grandma mode! They got us a bunch of remaining stuff that we hadn't gotten at showers, and now I gotta say, this kid's got a fully stocked room! We haven't gotten many things for a few months down the road when she starts becoming mobile, but at least for now I think we are definitely ready to go with this baby. If she surprises us and ends up waiting to come out for a few more weeks, at least we know we are all ready for her whenever she's ready! We even have a small stock of diapers, and I've gotten a couple nursing bras. Natalie now has all the essentials and lots of really fun stuff too. One of my favorite things to do now is to just sit in the nursery and just look around at everything. And it smells like baby in the room. I don't seem to get tired of just sitting in there. And neither do the kitties, it seems. PB has taken over a little wicker cradle we have sitting on the floor, and Tabeal seems comfortable sitting just about anywhere (as long as it's not IN the crib; we've caught her in there a few times) I just think they've realized what Phil and I think about the baby's room: it's now the best room in the house, to be certain. Our kitchen doubles as an office, our living room doubles as a dining room, our basement is a laundry/cat litter/store-all-kinds-of-junk room, and Natalie's room is just Natalie's room. It turned out looking so great. It's getting easier and easier to imagine having a little baby around now that we have a room for her. Phil has gotten the nesting bug too. Of course it probably helps that he has had to do just about everything around the house ever since Jan. 9th, since I'm supposed to stay off my feet, but he's been washing bottles, baby clothes and linens, getting the car seats put in, and at night, having dream after dream about me going into labor. Some of them are pretty bizarre, but no more strange than the ones I've had in previous weeks. One thing I mentioned to Phil last night, is that up until recently I had lots of thoughts and dreams about what she would look like. Recently I can't picture her at all. Except for things that we know, like her long fingers and legs, I just can't even imagine what she will look like in reality. Maybe it's normal this way, to forget all your preconceived ideas about what your baby will look like right before she actually arrives, so that when we see her she will look perfect in every way.

January 23, 2002

Today Phil gets sworn in for the Federal Bar, and I might not be able to make it to the ceremony. I missed the time he was sworn in to the State Bar, because I was on a business trip to England, and now it looks like I might not get to go this time only because I can't handle the potential walk from a parking lot into the federal courthouse building. Phil's going to try to come pick me up here at work (the swearing-in is during lunch time) so that he could drop me off at the building while he goes to park, but if he doesn't have time after his meeting with a client this morning, he'll be going to the ceremony himself. I'll be really upset if I miss this, but there's not much I can do about it. I can't even handle the walk from my desk down to the break room, I can't imagine trudging through half of downtown, I'd be in tears before I made it out of the parking garage.

Last night was really rough on me. After a fairly stable day yesterday, I was awake most of the night with pretty bad contraction pain, just enough that I couldn't get comfortable and fall asleep, or when I did fall asleep it wouldn't last for too long. Maybe I'll have to call Dr. Teague today and see what she says.

January 24, 2002

Ugh, I already tried updating this once this morning and after I had made all my changes, as I was saving the page Homestead freaked out and didn't let me save it..kept on asking if I wanted to start a new site. Noo, I'd just like to update the one I already have, is that so hard? Good thing they had a three-day site upgrade, huh?

First of all, congratulations to my friend April, I've now heard that she had Addie yesterday evening at about 6:30! I don't know many other details yet; I hope they are all doing okay. I'm glad she ended up having her before I have Natalie, afterall she was due a month and a day before me!

I did end up getting to go downtown to see Phil's federal bar swearing-in yesterday afternoon, which I was very glad about. Yesterday morning Phil called down to the courthouse to find out specifics about where we could park, and when he told them his wife was 9 months pregnant and had pretty much been in labor for two weeks already, they got things all set up for us! They took his name and license plate number and told him we could park right underneath the courthouse building, in a loading dock/employee parking lot area! It was a good thing too, even walking from there into the building I started having pains again. The people we saw walking in were all huffing and puffing from the walk they took to get there though, so there was no way I could have ever made it! When we got into the courtroom, it was standing room only (we were running a little late; he had to drive all the way up to my work to pick me up and then drive downtown) but fortunately I saw about half a seat available in a bench and when I asked someone if she would scoot over a little to allow me to sit, she did. Unfortunately I didn't get to sit with Phil because there was only room for me (he had to stand the whole ceremony, as did about 50 other people) but I'm still glad I was there to see it. It was a very proud moment, and now he's legally entitled to make a federal case out of something. (haha)

I called the doctor's office yesterday because I had been up almost all night the night before with

contractions, plus I told them how for the last few days I'd been waking up even more puffy than normal, I could hardly close my fingers into a fist. That's typical for the end of pregnancy toward the end of the day, but if you wake up swollen that could be a problem. Yesterday afternoon the nurse called me back and asked me a lot of questions about everything, then went to talk to Dr. Teague, and then called me back and asked me to come in the office to get checked out. They weren't worried so much about the contractions I was having, but because of the puffiness and since I've been coughing a lot and been even more short of breath than usual they thought I might be having a bad reaction to the Brethine. When I got there, Dr. Teague checked my lungs for fluid, and said I didn't have any in there so I should be okay. Concerning the contractions, she told me to start taking the medication now every 4 or 5 hours instead of every 6, so now I'm pretty much shaky and out of it constantly. She said she wanted me to continue taking it until Wednesday, also (we thought maybe she'd take me off of it tomorrow, oh well.) Next Wednesday will put me in the middle of my 37th week, so after that we'll just let what happens happen. I'm hoping that the good thing I'll get out of being in labor for three weeks is that when I go to actually have the baby, maybe things will progress pretty quickly! I still have my appointment tomorrow morning, so hopefully tomorrow I'll know if I've dilated any more and how far down she has gone. I also will be having my Group B strep test. I'm a little bummed that I have to keep taking the medication until the middle of next week, but it's just a few more days and I know it's for the best for the baby. It's just that this stuff really makes me feel miserable, and it's really starting to get to me that I am increasingly worthless both at work and at home. Phil's doing everything these days, which he really doesn't mind and whenever I try to help him with something he tells me to sit back down, but I just hate feeling so useless. And it's gotten harder and harder to get anything done at work. I've been heading up a major project involving a few other departments the last couple months, and suddenly I just can't keep anything straight in my head. In meetings I blank out completely about what I'm trying to say, and I can't seem to get any of my points across, so I feel like everyone thinks I'm an idiot; and unfortunately, we recently got a new manager so he doesn't know me to be any different. I have been able to tell that the last couple times I've met with him concerning this project, he's gotten more and more frustrated with me. It's just getting really hard.

January 25, 2002

I went to the doctor this morning but she didn't want to check my cervix because, as she said, "I don't want to stir things up." I suppose that IS a good thing. It will just have to continue to be a mystery as to how much more I've progressed since January 9th I guess! I did have the Group B Strep test and I also had blood drawn again, this time for a complete blood count. I don't know what that is for, but I'm actually starting to get a little used to being poked at now. I didn't know I was getting blood drawn this morning but when she pulled out the elastic band and the syringe I barely flinched this time. :) My next appointment is scheduled for Monday February 4th; even though I'm on the weekly schedule now, Dr. Teague has a surgery scheduled for next Friday so my appointment was bumped to the following Monday. Let's see...going off the meds on Wednesday... will I make it 6 more days after that? Hmm... Personally I'm just very excited to have made it this far. When I looked at the calendar a couple weeks ago and saw that I had my St. Ann's hospital tour scheduled for tomorrow, I thought for sure I'd be "touring" the hospital again before I made it to the official tour. Plus tomorrow night my work group is getting together at an Italian restaurant called Bucco diBeppo's as sort of a going away dinner for me. It was scheduled two weeks ago too and I didn't know if I'd make it to my own party. Now I think I might actually make it there. Taking these pills more frequently is making me feel pretty horrid, but at least it has seemed to control my contractions a little better.

Speaking of St. Ann's, I just might get to stop in and see April and Addie there tomorrow after my tour if she's still there. I spoke with her last night on the phone and got a few more of the details. She went to see her doctor at about 11:30 on Wednesday morning and he did an ultrasound, only to find that her amniotic fluid was low, so he told her to go on to the hospital. She got there and was still contracting at about the same rate, and there still was no change: she hadn't dilated and the baby still hadn't dropped. They tried some methods to dilate her, but four hours later there were still no changes and every time she had a contraction Addie's heart rate dropped. When her doctor called for an update and he found out what was going on, he came right over and they got her ready for a c-section. Addie was born (with a full head of dark hair!) at 6:34 pm and weighed a tiny 5 pounds 13 ounces, which is really funny because at her ultrasound two weeks ago her doctor had told her the baby was already almost 8 pounds! I didn't talk to her long because she was having trouble getting breastfeeding started and she needed to go try to feed her then, but it was nice to hear from her and to get the update!

As of tomorrow I've made it to 37 weeks!



	Week 36 January 22, 2002 Happy birthday to Mom and Happy Due Date to my friend April! We thought for sure that nothing at all would happen today, but she woke up this morning with some contractions and other signs, so maybe she'll deliver on her due date after all! Or at least maybe not have to go through an induction this weekend. She's been saying for the last couple days that she thinks we're going to end up at St. Ann's at the same time. I hope not, she's due exactly a month and a day before me, so she'd BETTER deliver first!! People around the office are now taking bets as to how long I'm going to last. I'm just happy that tomorrow it will have been two weeks since I went into labor; two weeks is a very important amount of time these days! I'm now getting into the safe zone of when we know the baby will probably be just fine, so I'm starting to feel much more comfortable with the idea of going into labor at any time. According to most things I read, she's around 6 pounds by now so she should be okay. Hopefully I'll find out more at my doctor's appointment this week. Right now it's scheduled for Friday morning but I really wonder if I'm going to make it that long. I just don't think I want to wait that long to get another progress report. Yesterday morning I even wondered if I'd end up at the hospital again by the end of the day, because I had been having so many contractions. Sunday night they got pretty bad, but that was probably because I was late taking my pill by a half hour. After I took the pill and waited a little while (with my feet up, yes Mom I AM sitting almost constantly!!) the contractions subsided. Yesterday I really began to wonder though. Today I seem to have stabilized pretty well. I've only had a few contractions here and there. Sunday morning was interesting. I woke up and noticed two big changes to my body: first, my waist came back! The baby has now dropped so low that I actually have a waist again. On one hand it's kind of nice that I have some shape back, but now it hurts more than ever whenever I walk around. Whenever I walk anywhere for more than about 15 feet it feels like she's about to fall out and the pressing against my pubic bone gets so bad, especially when I wake up in the middle of the night and have to somehow try to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. I'd really be surprised at this point if she hasn't really dropped down into my pelvis because the change in my waist was really dramatic. Plus, the second big and VERY surprising change was my belly button! It had popped out really early, like around 4 months if I remember right, and it just became more and more of an outtie every single week. I was getting really used to seeing it that way, very much a solid outtie. Sunday morning I was getting ready to jump in the shower ("jump" being figurative) and I noticed a difference on my belly. My belly button was no longer sticking out! It had popped back in overnight! This was one end of pregnancy thing I had never heard of before. By the middle of the day it had come back out a little again, but it's really soft around that area now and I can push it back in really easily, whereas before there was no way I could do that. That part of my belly is now flat too, instead of sticking out very round, it's almost concave, but just right at that spot. As you go lower down it's DEFINITELY still extremely round. When I look down now, from my vantage point I can't even tell I have underwear on. (I wear the kind that stays around my hips, not the big ugly typical maternity underwear.) Last night I got home from work and Mom and Grandma Hedrick opened the door to greet me. They had been out shopping all day, and had kicked into high-gear grandma mode! They got us a bunch of remaining stuff that we hadn't gotten at showers, and now I gotta say, this kid's got a fully stocked room! We haven't gotten many things for a few months down the road when she starts becoming mobile, but at least for now I think we are definitely ready to go with this baby. If she surprises us and ends up waiting to come out for a few more weeks, at least we know we are all ready for her whenever she's ready! We even have a small stock of diapers, and I've gotten a couple nursing bras. Natalie now has all the essentials and lots of really fun stuff too. One of my favorite things to do now is to just sit in the nursery and just look around at everything. And it smells like baby in the room. I don't seem to get tired of just sitting in there. And neither do the kitties, it seems. PB has taken over a little wicker cradle we have sitting on the floor, and Tabeal seems comfortable sitting just about anywhere (as long as it's not IN the crib; we've caught her in there a few times) I just think they've realized what Phil and I think about the baby's room: it's now the best room in the house, to be certain. Our kitchen doubles as an office, our living room doubles as a dining room, our basement is a laundry/cat litter/store-all-kinds-of-junk room, and Natalie's room is just Natalie's room. It turned out looking so great. It's getting easier and easier to imagine having a little baby around now that we have a room for her. Phil has gotten the nesting bug too. Of course it probably helps that he has had to do just about everything around the house ever since Jan. 9th, since I'm supposed to stay off my feet, but he's been washing bottles, baby clothes and linens, getting the car seats put in, and at night, having dream after dream about me going into labor. Some of them are pretty bizarre, but no more strange than the ones I've had in previous weeks. One thing I mentioned to Phil last night, is that up until recently I had lots of thoughts and dreams about what she would look like. Recently I can't picture her at all. Except for things that we know, like her long fingers and legs, I just can't even imagine what she will look like in reality. Maybe it's normal this way, to forget all your preconceived ideas about what your baby will look like right before she actually arrives, so that when we see her she will look perfect in every way. January 23, 2002 Today Phil gets sworn in for the Federal Bar, and I might not be able to make it to the ceremony. I missed the time he was sworn in to the State Bar, because I was on a business trip to England, and now it looks like I might not get to go this time only because I can't handle the potential walk from a parking lot into the federal courthouse building. Phil's going to try to come pick me up here at work (the swearing-in is during lunch time) so that he could drop me off at the building while he goes to park, but if he doesn't have time after his meeting with a client this morning, he'll be going to the ceremony himself. I'll be really upset if I miss this, but there's not much I can do about it. I can't even handle the walk from my desk down to the break room, I can't imagine trudging through half of downtown, I'd be in tears before I made it out of the parking garage. Last night was really rough on me. After a fairly stable day yesterday, I was awake most of the night with pretty bad contraction pain, just enough that I couldn't get comfortable and fall asleep, or when I did fall asleep it wouldn't last for too long. Maybe I'll have to call Dr. Teague today and see what she says. January 24, 2002 Ugh, I already tried updating this once this morning and after I had made all my changes, as I was saving the page Homestead freaked out and didn't let me save it..kept on asking if I wanted to start a new site. Noo, I'd just like to update the one I already have, is that so hard? Good thing they had a three-day site upgrade, huh? First of all, congratulations to my friend April, I've now heard that she had Addie yesterday evening at about 6:30! I don't know many other details yet; I hope they are all doing okay. I'm glad she ended up having her before I have Natalie, afterall she was due a month and a day before me! I did end up getting to go downtown to see Phil's federal bar swearing-in yesterday afternoon, which I was very glad about. Yesterday morning Phil called down to the courthouse to find out specifics about where we could park, and when he told them his wife was 9 months pregnant and had pretty much been in labor for two weeks already, they got things all set up for us! They took his name and license plate number and told him we could park right underneath the courthouse building, in a loading dock/employee parking lot area! It was a good thing too, even walking from there into the building I started having pains again. The people we saw walking in were all huffing and puffing from the walk they took to get there though, so there was no way I could have ever made it! When we got into the courtroom, it was standing room only (we were running a little late; he had to drive all the way up to my work to pick me up and then drive downtown) but fortunately I saw about half a seat available in a bench and when I asked someone if she would scoot over a little to allow me to sit, she did. Unfortunately I didn't get to sit with Phil because there was only room for me (he had to stand the whole ceremony, as did about 50 other people) but I'm still glad I was there to see it. It was a very proud moment, and now he's legally entitled to make a federal case out of something. (haha) I called the doctor's office yesterday because I had been up almost all night the night before with contractions, plus I told them how for the last few days I'd been waking up even more puffy than normal, I could hardly close my fingers into a fist. That's typical for the end of pregnancy toward the end of the day, but if you wake up swollen that could be a problem. Yesterday afternoon the nurse called me back and asked me a lot of questions about everything, then went to talk to Dr. Teague, and then called me back and asked me to come in the office to get checked out. They weren't worried so much about the contractions I was having, but because of the puffiness and since I've been coughing a lot and been even more short of breath than usual they thought I might be having a bad reaction to the Brethine. When I got there, Dr. Teague checked my lungs for fluid, and said I didn't have any in there so I should be okay. Concerning the contractions, she told me to start taking the medication now every 4 or 5 hours instead of every 6, so now I'm pretty much shaky and out of it constantly. She said she wanted me to continue taking it until Wednesday, also (we thought maybe she'd take me off of it tomorrow, oh well.) Next Wednesday will put me in the middle of my 37th week, so after that we'll just let what happens happen. I'm hoping that the good thing I'll get out of being in labor for three weeks is that when I go to actually have the baby, maybe things will progress pretty quickly! I still have my appointment tomorrow morning, so hopefully tomorrow I'll know if I've dilated any more and how far down she has gone. I also will be having my Group B strep test. I'm a little bummed that I have to keep taking the medication until the middle of next week, but it's just a few more days and I know it's for the best for the baby. It's just that this stuff really makes me feel miserable, and it's really starting to get to me that I am increasingly worthless both at work and at home. Phil's doing everything these days, which he really doesn't mind and whenever I try to help him with something he tells me to sit back down, but I just hate feeling so useless. And it's gotten harder and harder to get anything done at work. I've been heading up a major project involving a few other departments the last couple months, and suddenly I just can't keep anything straight in my head. In meetings I blank out completely about what I'm trying to say, and I can't seem to get any of my points across, so I feel like everyone thinks I'm an idiot; and unfortunately, we recently got a new manager so he doesn't know me to be any different. I have been able to tell that the last couple times I've met with him concerning this project, he's gotten more and more frustrated with me. It's just getting really hard. January 25, 2002 I went to the doctor this morning but she didn't want to check my cervix because, as she said, "I don't want to stir things up." I suppose that IS a good thing. It will just have to continue to be a mystery as to how much more I've progressed since January 9th I guess! I did have the Group B Strep test and I also had blood drawn again, this time for a complete blood count. I don't know what that is for, but I'm actually starting to get a little used to being poked at now. I didn't know I was getting blood drawn this morning but when she pulled out the elastic band and the syringe I barely flinched this time. :) My next appointment is scheduled for Monday February 4th; even though I'm on the weekly schedule now, Dr. Teague has a surgery scheduled for next Friday so my appointment was bumped to the following Monday. Let's see...going off the meds on Wednesday... will I make it 6 more days after that? Hmm... Personally I'm just very excited to have made it this far. When I looked at the calendar a couple weeks ago and saw that I had my St. Ann's hospital tour scheduled for tomorrow, I thought for sure I'd be "touring" the hospital again before I made it to the official tour. Plus tomorrow night my work group is getting together at an Italian restaurant called Bucco diBeppo's as sort of a going away dinner for me. It was scheduled two weeks ago too and I didn't know if I'd make it to my own party. Now I think I might actually make it there. Taking these pills more frequently is making me feel pretty horrid, but at least it has seemed to control my contractions a little better. Speaking of St. Ann's, I just might get to stop in and see April and Addie there tomorrow after my tour if she's still there. I spoke with her last night on the phone and got a few more of the details. She went to see her doctor at about 11:30 on Wednesday morning and he did an ultrasound, only to find that her amniotic fluid was low, so he told her to go on to the hospital. She got there and was still contracting at about the same rate, and there still was no change: she hadn't dilated and the baby still hadn't dropped. They tried some methods to dilate her, but four hours later there were still no changes and every time she had a contraction Addie's heart rate dropped. When her doctor called for an update and he found out what was going on, he came right over and they got her ready for a c-section. Addie was born (with a full head of dark hair!) at 6:34 pm and weighed a tiny 5 pounds 13 ounces, which is really funny because at her ultrasound two weeks ago her doctor had told her the baby was already almost 8 pounds! I didn't talk to her long because she was having trouble getting breastfeeding started and she needed to go try to feed her then, but it was nice to hear from her and to get the update! As of tomorrow I've made it to 37 weeks!